Wilkinson, Jemima (1752–1819)

US protestant religious leader. The daughter of a prosperous farmer, she was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island. She became deeply religious after hearing George Whitefield preach when she was aged 18. Some years later she claimed to have fallen into a trance, died, and awakened with a new soul, that of a prophetess. Calling herself the ‘Publick Universal Friend’, she drew large crowds preaching in New England. Encountering increasing antagonism, she established a religious colony, Jerusalem, in western New York state (1789–90). Her followers increasingly objected to her dictatorial ways, and she lived out her late years estranged and alone.